Masterpiece of Horror Theatre- Night of the Living Dead (1990)

          I mentioned last time the original went into the public domain due to a mishap regarding the title card and the copyright notice. Sadly, this, and a lengthy legal battle with the distributor, meant Romero himself did not profit much off the original. He feared, given this, that a remake would be made without his involvement (indeed, a spiritual successor was made in 1985, Return of the Living Dead, with the involvement of screenwriter John Russo, and several unofficial sequels were made). So, when Menachem Golan (formerly of Cannon Films, and now the head of "21 Century Film Corporation") had interest in remaking the film, Romero, Russo, and original producer Russell Steiner signed on.  Tom Savini, who I've mentioned numerous times, was chosen to direct. Romero had hoped he could do the effects for the original, but he had been drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. After years of working together, Romero encouraged Savini to direct the remake. Romero was still heavily involved, rewriting the original screenplay he wrote in the 60's, and even ghostdirecting some scenes. When he was off-set, however, Savini would clash with the producers on a regular basis. This led to an unpleasant experience for him, especially since his ideas were vetoed. Like the original, the film was shot in and around Pittsburgh, though, obviously, with the prestige now attached to this project, extras from as far away as Kentucky were recruited. In the lead roles of Ben and Barbara were Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman(the latter was Savini's college acquaintance). With a much higher budget of $4.2 million, it managed to make a profit, but was savaged by critics, with Siskel and Ebert putting it on their worst of the year list. However, it would eventually see renewed interest on home video, and today stands at a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes.

      The plot remains unchanged. Barbara (Patricia Tallman) and Johnny (Bill Moseley. Yes, that Bill Moseley) are visiting their father's grave, when Barbara is attacked by a mysterious assailant with pale skin. She escapes while Johnny fights him off, but finds more figures with severe scars and pale skin following her. She eventually finds a farmhouse, which is also infested by these creatures. However, Ben (Tony Todd) comes in, and they fight them off together. As they contemplate their situation, they met other survivors Harry and Helen Cooper (Tom Towles and McKee Anderson) with child Sarah (Heather Mazur), and Tom (William Butler) and Judy (Katie Finneran). They find that these "ghouls" have infested the place, and they struggle to survive the night.

     The impression I had from reading this was that it was mostly a straight remake of the original, with the original script. That is not true. It has some distinct differences, which work in its favor as a remake. It modernizes the film, it explains some aspects, it fleshes out some of the characters. This makes the film distinct enough from the original to be considered its own product, along with implementing the themes of the later Dead films, which show humans as just inherently flawed as the unthinking zombies. At the same time, despite being in color, Savini manages to emulate the way the original used shadows and spacing as the main focus, and was able to create an experience similar to watching the original. While the ending doesn't have as much shock as the original, it is still satisfying, with the full extent of the events weighing on the characters.

     The main problem I have with the film is largely that its leads feel too .... Action movie. The original mostly kept the characters as competent, but realistically, and were largely powerless when the situation went south for them. However, here, they regularly beat zombies in such a manner that stretches imagination. It ruins the emersion for me. Like I said, the ending didn't have as much impact now, since the lead survives and joins the vigilantes. Also, one of the characters (who was unambiguously hostiles) is killed in what seems to be a moralistic choice.

      I liked this. Obviously, it wasn't as good as the original, but it managed to capture what worked about the original, whilst doing its own thing. So, I'd recommend it to those who like the original, or those who like zombie movies.

       Next time, we go to another classic, this time of monster movies with The Beast from 20000 Fathoms.

Masterpiece of Horror Theatre- Night of the Living Dead

       Well, it's October, so it's time for another Masterpiece of Horror Theatre, and it's a special one. This is the 5th anniversary since I decided to rip-off Linkara and make a series of horror film reviews to do while I was in fall break on my Facebook. I decided to honor this anniversary by starting this year with a film that I reviewed back then, and a film that has its own 50th Anniversary this year: Night of the Living Dead.

     After graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 1960, George Romero started out his film career in the local Pittsburgh area.  He mostly specialized in industrial films and TV commercials (To tie in to the recent resurgence of Mr. Rogers in culture in the wake of the new documentary and his own 50th anniversary for his show, one of Romero's earliest films was actually a segment on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood while it was a local Pittsburgh show). Eventually, he and friends John Russo and Russell Steiner formed Image Ten and for its first film, decided to make a horror movie, since that was still in vogue. Image Ten got support from Pittsburgh based industrial firm Hardware Associates, which raised $114,000 (around $825,000 in 2018 dollars) for the film. The name was not pinned down despite this. Romero and Russo's original script was called Monster Flick, and played more of a horror comedy, focusing on teenage aliens meeting human ones. The second draft brought in the idea of the aliens being flesh eaters, and eventually, the final draft (heavily influenced by Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, itself adapted into film several times before and after) had the villains as the resurrected dead (whom the script calls "ghouls"). The leading role of Ben was given to local theatre actor Duane Jones. The casting of an African American in the lead proved controversial in the late 60's, especially in the more niche, mostly white horror genre. In another Mr. Rogers connection, Romero originally wanted Betty Aberlin (aka Lady Aberlin) in the lead female role of Barbara, but Fred Rogers refused to allow it. The role was instead given to Judith O'Dea.  Much of the film was shot in remote locations around rural Evan City, Pennsylvania, with its cemetery being the opening scene due to it being isolated from any onlookers or police, and the house setting from a house scheduled for demolition. Because of the low budget of the film, the actors were largely local actors or even the producers and investors in the film, and the effects was cheap (chocolate syrup was used for the blood, as was common practice at the time, and meat and clay, among others, were used to simulate body parts.) Even while filming, the name largely changed, first to Night of Anubis and then to Night of the Flesh Eaters.  The first zombie to appear was S. William Hinzman, one of the investors in the film, who based his now iconic walk on a Boris Karloff performance. After the shocking content caused both Columbia and American International Pictures to decline distribution, finally, the New York based Walter Reade Organization agreed to distribute, though with addition edits (ten minutes by some accounts), and having to change the name to Night of the Living Dead (since The Flesh Eaters had been made in 1964). The film premiered at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh on October 1st, 1968, and would go on to make $30 million at the box office, a massive success for a low budget independent film, and would garner critical acclaim, with even Pauline Kael praising the film. The film would come to define and influence the "New Horror" period of the late 60's, 70's, and 80's. However, the biggest impact of the film came when the Walter Reade Organization, while changing the title card of the film, forgot to put the copyright notice on it (which was on the title card when the film was called Night of the Flesh Eaters), meaning the film immediately fell into the public domain. This mistake would allow others to use the creatures and elements used in the film, leading to the zombie genre we know of today.

     The film begins with Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and her brother Johnny (Russell Steiner) driving to a cemetery to visit their father's grave. Johnny lightly teases her, especially when a strange man (S. William Hinzman) comes around. However, the man immediately attacks Barbara, and Johnny promptly comes to her defense, allowing to flee, while the man chases her. She comes to a farmhouse, where she finds a corpse. Soon, other strange people pop out, and slowly move towards her, prompting her to flee further. She eventually reaches a home, which she safely enters away from the creatures. There, she meets Ben (Duane Jones), who barricades the house. Ben had come to the house after finding more of the creatures at the door. They soon find Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), in the cellar of the house, where they fled after the creatures overturned their car and bit their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon), who has a strange illness. Teenagers Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith.... Ridley) also come after hearing on the radio that more of these creatures are popping up all over the East Coast, causing mass murder all over. These seven people are beseiged by these mysterious ghouls, who wander outside the house, and only increase in number. Even the talking heads in radio and TV are baffled, with only a vague hint of an irradiated NASA probe (likely a remnant of the earlier script). As tensions rise between the occupants, it seems they are living on borrowed time.

      I decided to see this on my TV, since the last time I saw this years ago, it was on a small screen Youtube video. On a larger screen, I can finally appreciate the lighting of the film. Romero manages to effectively use shadows in both subtle and explicit ways, emphasizing the claustrophobic situation for the characters, and the creeping terror outside. It also increases the horror, as the lighting shows the full extent of the brutality on screen (the shadows make it look like real blood.) This is very effective in black-and-white, since it fully displays this contrast. For how low budget the film is, the effects and settings are very unsettling. The main innovation often cited of the film was setting a classic gothic living dead scenario in what was then contemporary America. (Even Targets from a year earlier, despite being similarly set in the then modern day, had elements of a gothic film in the form of the in-universe film) Thus, the setting (including a cemetery and an abandoned house) signal a more modern feel for the film, especially since they gain info from radio and television broadcasts. The zombies, in their make-up and tattered clothes, look very unsettling, but unlike modern zombies, they still look relatively normal, which makes them even more terrifying when they begin the killings. The actors do great, with Duane Jones and Karl Hardman (the latter another investor who was in the film) particular highlights. The sheer claustrophobia of the film increases as the zombies come in, and the characters are killed off one by one. The ending was especially chilling, when Ben, having managed to survive, is killed by a group of vigilantes hunting zombies. If there were a more explicit message in that, I can't find it any.

    I remember I didn't like that much of the film was focused on the people in the house. Obviously, I've turned around on it, but I think I had a particular problem around the hour-ish mark, where it did kind of slow down, and feels like a repetition of previous scenes. I also feel the film could've been slightly longer, like that ten minutes that was cut (which has been lost due to a flood), or maybe more focus on the large scenario through the TV or the radio.

    When I first saw this film years ago, I didn't much like it. It took years for me to turn around on it, and you can consider this a reevaluation of the film with hindsight behind it. While I prefer Dawn of the Dead, this is an excellent feature, and I highly recommend it for horror and zombie fans, or people who like black-and-white films for their look.

    Which brings me to tomorrow, where I will look at this film's color remake from 1990.

TV review: Bojack Horseman, Season 5

     So, given the minor success of my previous Television review, I've decided to do it again. This time, it is one show, but that I've followed since last year. We are going to explore the continued adventures of our favorite equid former sitcom star Bojack Horseman and co. as they enter their fifth season. Just to recap, I don't have a structure to these. I just go off on more of a stream of consciousness, just what I want to say about this. There will also be spoilers for this and the other four seasons, and I really want people to see this show. It is one of the best shows on television right now.

   So, that intro was written a couple weeks ago. I just decided to wait on writing the rest of it until it had fully settled in my mind. I wrote the intro right after watching the season, and I felt I needed time to fully let it settle in before I express my opinion. Similarly, it allowed me to read some other opinions to help me understand this season. So, at the end of the last season, I predicted, based on Bojack's reaction upon opening the script, that Philbert would be considered bad, and well, it was. The show seems to be a satire of various so-called "Peak TV" shows with mysteries and unlikeable characters and the like. The showrunner seems to follow this. I read about a book (didn't read it myself) called "Difficult Men", which followed many of the writers of those kinds of shows, and how they were, well the title explains it all. Flip McVicker seems to exemplify this. Despite his alleged genius, he is condescending, callous, and just overall unconcerned with the well-being of his actors. Anyway, Bojack had a good moment at the end of the last season, having managed to reunite Hollyhock with her mother, and leaving that relation off on a high note. Now, it deals with his deteriorating relationship with Diane, especially when she finds out more of the disturbing things that Bojack had done, and in her capacity as advisor to Philbert, has incorporated into the show itself. The season can be seen as the culmination of a series wide theme of consequences. Bojack has to deal with the consequences of his actions all the time, and here, all the things he's done finally start to collapse around him. Creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg addressed this in a few interviews I read, where he discusses how this season was meant as a reminder that Bojack was never a particularly good guy, but the audience, after last season, forgot that, and were glad that he had one good achievement. After reading that, I saw the pattern. Even after the relative high note of last season, Bojack's actions continue to hang over him, and it continues to have consequences. The best episode of the season, as I imagine others will list, is "Free Churro", which boasts a stunning performance by Will Arnett as he effectively turns Bojack's eulogy at his mother's funeral into a one man show, where he goes into his relationship with his parents, his difficult feelings about them, and his feelings in general. It is truly stunning, and shows why Will Arnett does so well on this show. This is his showcase through and through, and he gives what I consider an Emmy winning performance. My second favorite is probably "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos", which boasts the best laughs of the season, and was a nice spotlight on Mr. Peanutbutter. My least favorite episode of the season was probably "The Dog Days Are Over". Not because it was bad, (in fact, it was good, with the formula of last season's "The Old Sugerman Place" now focused on Diane), but of all the episodes, this was probably the weakest. I also predicted last season that Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter would divorce based on the penultimate moment of season 4, and they are divorced at the beginning of the season. However, the two have lingering feelings, even as Diane grapples with her relationship with Bojack and Mr. Peanutbutter has a new relationship (which is increasingly become a case of history repeating itself). With Princess Carolyn, it was nice that, after the harshness inflicted on her last season that she got a relatively happy ending this season. She also had a nice origin episode this season that makes her miscarriage last season even more tragic in retrospect. But, after the struggle of attempting to adopt, she finally gets a child, which is a nice end. Todd is entertaining as ever, managing to stumble into the President of Ad Sales at Philbert's sponsor "What Time is It Right Now.com", and continuing with his wacky adventures through life. He even creates a sex robot in an attempt to woe his friend Emily (because he is asexual), and said Robot ("Henry Fondle") becomes the head of "WhatTimeIsItRightNow" by virtue of his sexual phrases being mistaken for casual corporate talk (itself being a decent satire). I mentioned accountability as a theme for Bojack's storyline this season, but it is also a general theme for the season. There is a character based clearly off Mel Gibson, who is given forgiveness despite the wretchness of his actions, and the theme revolves around how he slithers out of taking responsibility. The season ends with Henry Fondle being forced out due to (in a reverse of the aforementioned joke) his statements on low power being taken as sexual harassment (with, as said before, his earlier legitimate sexual comments being mistaken for corporate speak) but being offered a job anyway because he had "done his time" (a common defense of celebrity sexual assaulters. I saw it unironically with Roman Polanski a couple weeks ago.) Todd decides to destroy his creation rather than that happen. So, yeah, once again, the cast and crew of this show hit it out of the park with another season of intelligent, interesting, and brutally realistic storylines and humor.  It's a recommendation for seasoned watchers, but I say watch the earlier seasons because this season is very dependent on past events.

   So, thanks for reading, and on Sat. , we begin our annual look at horror films in Masterpiece of Horror Theatre, starting with, in honor of its 50th anniversary, Night of the Living Dead (yeah, I know I did all those Romero films last year, but I needed to acknowledge this anniversary, probably because I've spent most of the year celebrating 2001's anniversary. )

Current Film Review- Searching

     I recently reread my Unfriended review in potential preparation for watching the sequel (which I ended up not watching), and I found that I was harsh on the film. Not to say I've grown to like Unfriended over the years, but I feel that my criticisms weren't great,often devolved into mindless ranting about unrelated topics, instead of a full analysis. I'm particularly ashamed of implying that the filmmakers had done the computer screen conceit in an attempt for nebulous concept of "artistic pretentiousness" (as if that were a bad thing), and comparing It Follows, instead of just talking about the film on its own merits.  I've grown since then, and if I were to do a reevaluation of the film, I might be inclined to be fairer towards it, especially since it was fairly unique and I should've acknowledged that better instead of dismissing it. Especially since I've now seen this film, which shows that this is definitely something that isn't just a gimmick.

     David Kim (John Cho) has had a distant relationship with his daughter Margot (Michelle La) since the death of his wife Pamela (Sara Sohn). He has a brief interaction with her one night during a study group, which ends with her abruptly disconnecting. While he is asleep, she tries to call him three times. She then doesn't come home the next evening. He then learns that she hasn't been taking her piano lessons in the past few months, and she had skipped school. Eventually, he is forced to file a missing person's report with the police, where he meets Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing). As David unravels the events that occurred the night his daughter went missing, he learns that he didn't know his daughter the way he thought he did.

     First and foremost, this film is exhilarating. I had to catch my breath a couple times during the film. This has some massive twists that you won't see coming, and will keep you on your feet (so to speak). I can't say any more than that without spoilers, and I do not want to spoil this for you. This film is very effective and engrossing in its presentation, and you will be shocked watching this. John Cho delivers a great performance, able to display the emotions of a man grappling with missing a loved ones, and dealing with the revelations. The one thing this film has over Unfriended is that it actually feels more like using a computer screen. In that, it zooms into the various parts of the screen during the actions on it, and it moves across various screens while Cho is trying glean information. We not only see the Apple screen in the trailer, but even the old Windows screen from the early 2000's (the one I used to use back then). All of which serves the plot, and creates an innovative way to tell a long-told story.

    I understand that it was necessary for the plot, and it would've been distracting if they hadn't put it in there, but the product placement seemed off to me. Google and Apple factor heavily into the computers, but other sites like Tumblr and Youtube play a role (thought the former is the source of a funny joke). Not to say it felt like a commercial, but it did get occasionally distracting. To be fair, there is never a moment where they overly praise the item, just use it as a tool to push the plot and there are competing companies in here (the aforementioned Google, Apple, and Microsoft). I also felt that the internet connection could've gone out on occasion, just to increase the realism.

    This is one of the best films of the year. I left the theater stunned and excited at what I just viewed. This was breathtaking in its scope, and how it utilizes its use of computer screen to its fullest potential. Now, I want to see more of these, just to see if they could take it any further. This gets my unequivocal endorsement, in that I recommend it to anyone who has the time.